Statement of Purpose
I am currently a sophomore computer science major at University and
actively working on a clickbait detection research project that utilizes latent semantic analysis
techniques. As I progress through my undergraduate career and gain the necessary skills and
knowledge through coursework, research, self-study, etc., I want to focus my studies on building
robust models for decision-making under uncertainty. I want to focus my efforts on this broad
area of artificial intelligence because such work will allow autonomous systems to function in
real-world environments and for applications of artificial intelligence to make the most change in
the real world.
My research thus far has involved developing models that could be implemented in
real-world software to solve the challenges of hate speech mitigation and clickbait detection. In
my first year of work with my professor and another upperclassman, we worked on a machine
learning project focussed on developing a modified page rank algorithm to enable the mitigation
of hate speech and its spread on online social media networks. Since I was only a freshman at
the time, I was still honing my skills as a computer scientist and researcher. I was a solid
programmer in C++ and Python but topics such as machine learning, model training, and the
math behind the algorithms we implemented were still very much black boxes to me. I could use
Python to implement a specific vectorizer or machine learning algorithm but I did not have the
means to understand how these things worked on a fundamental level. Thus, my efforts were
focused on data processing and visualization. I used Python and its Regular Expression library
to preprocess data sets and organize them effectively to prepare them for input into our models.
In January of 2024, my professor and upperclassman were able to publish the paper titled “
.”
Although I was not an author, I was greatly inspired by my acknowledgment in the paper. This
motivated me to develop my skills further so that I can make more significant contributions to
our research in the future; so that one day, my name will also be worthy to appear as an author.
In the past six months, my research has been focused on clickbait detection enabled
through topic modeling and semantic analysis techniques. This time, I have been entrusted with
project design, model training, evaluation, and validation along with data visualization. Although
I still have a long way to mature as a computer scientist and researcher, I now have a more
versatile skillset under my belt that will enable me to effectively tackle this challenge. This
quarter, I am taking a machine-learning course that will formerly give me the skills to build my
own machine-learning algorithms and train, test, validate, and deploy them.
Recently, I have realized that research and constantly attempting to digest exciting
complex topics is something I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve realized that I want to attain
a Ph.D. because, through it, I will be able to conduct research as a career and constantly
explore exciting avenues of artificial intelligence and its applications in the real world. It is also
the first step in becoming a professor. But, it is hard for me to imagine myself attending an even
higher level of education, especially as someone whose parents and grandparents never even
went to college.
Although I have greatly enjoyed the current scope of my research, I would love to
explore different avenues and applications of data science and artificial intelligence in the SURF
program. A topic that greatly interests me is decision-making under uncertainty. The principal
investigators I would love to work with, Jeannette Bohg and Mykel Kochenderfer, constantly
tackle this problem in their research. A collaborative paper featuring Professor Bohg titled “From
Machine Learning to Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities for Embodied Intelligence,”
discusses the need for models that can handle the dynamic nature, complexity, and uncertainty
of the real-world environment and illustrates how such models are vital to the success of these
systems in practice. It also discusses potential strategies that may be explored to advance
these autonomous systems past the challenges of decision-making under uncertainty. This
paper showed me a whole new domain of obstacles and challenges when considering
real-world implementations for machine learning models. I would love to explore how models for
decision-making under uncertainty can be applied to many different real-world applications. I
believe that the most tangible outcomes of these real-world implementations will involve a
hybrid nature. The best decisions will be made through the joint effort of humans and AI.
The SURF program is greatly unique in how it provides graduate school preparation to
participants. In deciding how I want to spend my summer as a rising junior, the aspect of
graduate school preparation is one of the most decisive factors for me in a program. Currently, I
dream of entering a Ph.D. program to explore research in machine learning for decision-making
under uncertainty. While I may have an idea of how to pursue this avenue of research, I have
yet to determine how to best prepare myself for the graduate school application process and
craft the best application I can to authentically portray the skills and capabilities I possess as a
student and researcher. The opportunity to receive excellent graduate school preparation while
conducting research with brilliant professors and colleagues is something that I can only receive
through the SURF program.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, I would love to become a professor one day. Through
professorship and education, I can continue to explore research, make significant contributions
to the advancement of the field of artificial intelligence, and support students on their
educational paths as others have done for me. The SURF program will not only allow me to
conduct research under excellent professors but also provide an aspect no other program does
through graduate school preparation. The agent of support the SURF program will be for me in
my college journey to graduate school was the support I always longed for in my academic
journey. It will help me achieve what my parents never had the opportunity to do. On my way to
accomplishing my goals, I hope to be a vessel of support to others, especially to students who
lack much-needed support in their educational paths as I did.
